Fitzwilly (1967)

Film and Plot Synopsis

“Fitzwilly” is a 1967 comedy film directed by Delbert Mann and starring Dick Van Dyke, Barbara Feldon, and Edith Evans. The film revolves around a butler named Claude Fitzwilliam (played by Dick Van Dyke) and his team of servants who engage in elaborate schemes to keep their wealthy employer, Miss Victoria Woodworth (played by Edith Evans), financially afloat. This summary will delve into the intricate plotlines and character dynamics that make “Fitzwilly” a charming and entertaining classic.

‘Fitzwilly’ Movie Summary

The story opens in New York City, where we are introduced to Miss Victoria Woodworth (Edith Evans), a wealthy and eccentric elderly woman residing in a grand mansion on Fifth Avenue. Miss Woodworth is unaware that her butler, Claude Fitzwilliam (Dick Van Dyke), known affectionately as “Fitzwilly,” is orchestrating a series of elaborate schemes to maintain her luxurious lifestyle as Miss Vicki had been swindled out of her own fortune years before. Fitzwilly is assisted by a loyal team of servants, including the religious Albert (John McGiver), chauffeur Oliver (Sam Waterson), and several other quirky staff members.

The entire operation threatens to unravel when Miss Vicki hires a new assistant, Juliet Nowell (Barbara Feldon), to assist with her creation of a dictionary that contains all possible phonetic misspellings of words. Juliet is immediately suspicious of Fitzwilly and is surprised to learn from Miss Vicki that Fitzwilly graduated with honors from Williams College. Juliet states that Fitzwilly should be doing something more “worthy” of his education, like joining the Peace Corps.

Fitzwilly becomes determined to get rid of Juliet after she inadvertently foils several minor operations which begins to affect Miss Vicki’s available resources. Fitzwilly comes up with a plan to court Juliet believing that Juliet’s moral code would push her to resign her position if she became romantically involved with someone under Miss Vicki’s employ. However, Fitzwilly’s plan goes awry when the couple actually begins to fall in love with each other. Nevertheless, Juliet does quit when Fitzwilly refuses to even discuss ending his life of service to Miss Vicki.

I hope you don’t talk to yourself, Miss. She does and I do and we both hate it! Grimsby (Anne Seymour)

Eventually, Juliet stumbles upon evidence of Fitzwilly’s past crimes, mainly through the confessions of Albert who constantly feels overwhelming guilt for his past transgressions and longs for a penance for his crimes. Juliet returns to the mansion and confronts Fitzwilly, who confesses to his crimes and the reason for their need. Fitzwilly proposes marriage and agrees to end all the criminal operations. However, before doing so, Fitzwilly informs her of the need to complete one final operation to make up for the financial shortfall due to Juliet’s interference. The operation will need to accumulate $75,000 by Christmas Day in order to cover all of Miss Vicki’s outstanding debts. Fitzwilly refuses to tell Juliet about any of the details of the operation so that she cannot be implicated in any way.

Fitzwilly and the staff produce a complicated plan to steal the money from Gimbels department store on an extremely busy Christmas Eve. The operation is a success with Fitzwilly artfully fooling an inept store security guard, Mr. Oberblat (Norman Fell), into giving him the money. However, Albert stays behind to take the fall for the robbery, once again wishing to atone for his previous sins. Albert steadfastly refuses to implicate anyone else in the crime when questioned by police and prosecutors. However, Miss Vicki intervenes to protect her employee and extorts the assistant district attorney into agreeing to a suspended sentence on a lesser charge for Albert if she writes a check to the store that covers the stolen amount. Fitzwilly and Juliet quietly sulk as they begin to understand that they will need to confess their involvement to Miss Vicki since the heiress does not realize that she is broke.

Once back at Miss Vicki’s mansion, Fitzwilly prepares to confess his involvement in the robbery when Miss Vicki suddenly wishes to toast Fitzwilly and Juliet’s engagement. The couple reluctantly participates. However, a smile is brought to everyone’s faces when Miss Vicki reveals that her dictionary was rewritten into a screenplay and has been sold to a Hollywood studio for $500,000. Realizing that Miss Vicki has enough money to cover all of her debts, Fitzwilly and Juliet cheerly toast to their impending wedding.